District Tourneys’ Underway

<p>The District Tournaments are underway! Teams are now finally in their must-win scenarios in order to qualify for the State Tournaments. The Idaho Falls Metro has plenty of teams with the potential to make some runs at State. Let’s take at look some of the major results in the District Tournaments. </p> <p><strong>Thunder Ridge avoids Upset from Highland</strong></p> <p>Highland nearly pulled the upset but fell, 52-50, on the road.</p> <p>The upset bid just came up short but it may have been Highland’s best performance all-season even though they came up short. </p> <p>Highland led by a half-dozen at halftime and even entered the fourth quarter up seven. The upset started to become a potential reality until Thunder Ridge put their foot on the gas in the fourth. But an 18-8 deficit in the final period is what kept Highland out of the 5A District 5-6 Championship.</p> <p>Big man Mason Mickelson led the Rams with 16 points. Sophomore Jayden Wright added 11. Driggs for Thunder Ridge led all scorers with 22 showcasing his scoring ability especially in the fourth. </p> <p><strong>Bear Lake Holds off Soda Springs</strong></p> <p>At Bear Lake, the Bears survived a scare to earn a 73-67 win over Soda Springs.</p> <p>Bear Lake led handily in the first half and then held off Soda Springs in the second half. Bear Lake had been off for a week so it was an impressive win by showcasing their resilience in the second half. </p> <p>For Soda Springs, 6-foot-6 forward Hayden McWilliams notched a game-high 27 points while guard Brittan Bergholm added 23. The two-headed monster did everything they could to give themselves an opportunity to win but they just came up short. </p> <p>The Bears were led by Brady Shaul’s 20 points. He was able to score in a multitude of ways keeping Soda Springs off-balance. The team was lights out from the free-throw line which makes the difference in close games. </p> <p><strong>Shurtliff leads West Side Comeback</strong></p> <p> The top-seeded Pirates came storming back from a 10-point deficit by going on a 17-0 run spanning the second and third quarters on its way to a hard-fought 61-52 victory over Malad.</p> <p>West Side cannot let these slow starts continue because it will ultimately come back to bit them. They got away with it against Malad. </p> <p>West Side led at a same distance for most of the second half, but Malad did not go down without a fight. The Dragons got close on a pair of [player_tooltip player_id="969736" first="Tom" last="Simpson"] free throws with 1:39 remaining in the contest but couldn't fully close the gap.</p> <p>Simpson netted a team-best 21 points for the Dragons, while Ward added 19. Simpson buried a few tough shots with Shurtliff in his face but [player_tooltip player_id="969492" first="Bryler" last="Shurtliff"] got the win and led all scorers with 27. It was great to see Simpson and Shurtliff accept the challenge of guarding one-another. </p>